"And godlike they became," the voice now dripped with contempt. "From death, they found eternity in a tainted, corrupted way. Even the gods learned from them, and created their own corrupted children, through death or darkness. Demons, vampires, ghouls, zombies, drow, sorins, hellhounds, ternui, specters... All of them became part of the world. Not even the skeletons of the long dead were spared, walking again in the world of the living. But they were made by others; they were not the ones who first eluded death. They were not the ones who took death for themselves and became its lords."
The mage's eyes opened, completely black, no irises or whites.
"They were not deathlords."
The eyes blinked, I heard two final drum beats and gloom surrounded me again. All was silent before the voice spoke again, peaceful once more.
"Most of them gave themselves to higher powers and were called bound deathlords. Bound to the God of Fire. The God of Water. To the Fallen Gods – Fallen in a war so ancient that even those who fought them don't remember why anymore. But not you."
When my vision came back, I was corporeal again. The most beautiful woman I had ever seen stood before me, floating in a vast whiteness, her bronze skin wreathed by white cloth that billowed as if blown by a nonexistent wind. She was literally shining. She looked directly at me with eyes that changed colors.
"You weren't in it for power, were you? You just couldn't stand the idea of dying." She neared me and put a hand on my cheek. It burned fiercely, but also felt amazingly good, a pleasure I had never experienced in my life. Not sexual, but something else. "Poor child. So far gone from me in your fears, that I cannot touch you with kindness without causing you harm before healing. But I do love you, child. I could destroy you, here and now. You, and all my children, and all their corrupted creation. Start again. But I won't."
She took away her hand, and I missed it like a child misses its blanket. Like a lost lover. Like my aunt. Like my parents. It was a deep urge to have her back, even if it was just her hand, just her finger. A mediocre existence touched by a transcendent being, immediately addicted. I tried to move to her, but my body refused to obey. I tried to talk, to beg for her forgiveness for whatever sin had made her go away, to beg her to touch me again, but my mouth wouldn't move.
"I love you," she said, and I loved her too, with all my soul. "I allow you to live. But I also pity you. Hated by your brethren and shunned by almost everybody else. So I give you a gift. A quest. Find my High Priest in the Death Citadel, and he will remove your curse."
"I will," I said in the midst of tears. I would do anything for her. Surprise came over me as I realized I had spoken, but when I tried to do it again, I couldn't.
"Now go, my child. Go live your unending death."
She extended her hand to me, but she was fading away. I tried to reach her, but our fingers never touched.
When she was gone, I found myself again in the cave corridor.
I was not breathing, but I found I didn't need it anymore.
My transformation into deathlord was complete.
* * *
The cutscene had been intense.
Even though the sensation was gone now, I had strongly believed for a few moments that I loved that creator goddess.
This was no novelty to games. The contract I had signed allowed V-Soft to do that, as long as the scenes lasted no more than fifteen minutes, with a minimum of five minutes between scenes – in which I had to be fully awake and conscious enough to confirm if there was any lingering sensation in my body.
Aside from that, no system in the game could directly apply pleasure. I could have pleasure having in-game sex, for instance, but any type of pleasure beyond a physical action was forbidden. No magic, no pleasure feedback on level ups; only things I could do in real life could give me pleasure in here, with the exception of the cutscenes. There was great worry about people becoming addicted to the pleasure.
For the next few hours, I just practiced my magic, my sword, and ran. All the pain I had suffered because of Renno was still fresh in my mind, and I wasn't in a hurry to discover the next experience the Underworld had in stock for me. At least not before I got stronger.
I used almost all my MP doing magic, and ran while swinging the corroded sword until my stamina was also almost depleted. Then, I meditated for half an hour and repeated the process.
Soon I found out I could now create three magic spheres, even though I had no idea why the number had increased. It could either be because of the mage trait, the Archmage title, the intelligence increase, the overall level increase, or even for any other reason; I had no real way to know.
Also, becoming tired without panting was a new experience altogether. Talking without the need to pause for air was something in a whole new dimension. I supposed it was how the skeletons talked, using some innate magic the undead had. Would I need to do some rehab in the real world when I left the capsule?
Eight hours later I saw a big chamber on the end of the tunnel. I went back a little to meditate to full MP, created three darkness spheres and checked it out.
It was the size of five or six football fields, round, and with multiple exits all around, including what looked like the corridor continuation on the opposite side. A lake occupied a quarter of the chamber and some luminous lichen on the high ceiling gave a faint green light. There were mushrooms on the walls and floor near the lake. Seeing water for the first time since getting into the game was touching.
Food and water. How does my undead body deal with it?
I got closer to the lake and sipped the water. It tasted like shit. For the next five minutes, I kept spitting, trying to remove the taste from my mouth. It was déjà vu all over again.
Desperate to get rid of the taste, I took a mushroom nearby and ate it. It tasted sour but better than the water. I chewed on it until the water taste disappeared and swallowed.
12 nature damage received
Status effect received: Food Poisoning (level 1)
For 4 minutes, 59 seconds:
» -1 HP per second
That was a lot of damage. The moment the poison kicked in, the water surface shifted. A few instants later, three monsters jumped from the lake.
They were humanoid, with heads like a mix of lizard and fish and scaly skin all over their body. They had big claws and sharp teeth in multiple rows, like those of sharks. Their limbs were elongated and their bodies wiry. I immediately sent a dark sphere flying at one's face.
14 darkness damage dealt to Weird Fish
That was just great; they had fifty percent darkness resistance. I dropped my stuff, took my sword from my belt and prepared to fight.
And stood prepared for a long time. They moved so slowly it made a turtle look fast.
Dropping my guard, I closed my eyes long enough to create a death sphere.
28 death damage dealt to Weird Fish
Shit. As good as darkness and death magic had been for me in the short term, it seemed I'd have some troubles using them on some species of the Underworld. Just my luck.
Since darkness had a better mana/damage ratio, I started to send a lot of dark spheres their direction. It took a total of three hundred and eight damage to kill the first. It didn't even make a sound, just dropped dead.
I killed the second just as effortlessly. Meanwhile the third bent and picked a mushroom. They had just come to eat and were unable to fight. It was like killing puppies who came to eat their kibble. I stopped attacking.
As slow as a sunset, the creature took the mushroom from the ground. It put it in the mouth and swallowed it in a single gulp.
Then, it grew.
It got thicker, taller. I could see its muscles growing and ripping its skin apart. Its face elongated and the mouth enlarged. It looked at me, blinked with horizontal eyelids, and attacked.
Fast, I thought as it rushed at me and tried to claw me down. I blocked with the shield.
50 shock damage received
HP: 118 / 200
Wow. I got surprised both at the damage I had received and at the fact that my life was that low. That damn food poisoning! Since it didn't hurt I wasn't paying enough attention to it.
Annoyed at the unexpected turn of events, I thrust my sword at the monster.
20 damage dealt to Fast Fish Monster
Not bad. I barely dodged the next attack and attacked again. It wasn't very difficult, but I needed extreme concentration. If there were two or three of them, I wasn't sure if I'd have survived.
It was a good opportunity to apply magic to close combat. I read the flow of battle as best as I could and stopped moving for half a second. The fishman had just finished an attack, and I used the time to create a darkness spheres and throw a darkball at it.
In the end, it died when the damage it received was over five hundred. It was not a low-level monster. Damn, if I didn't have magic, I would have run out of stamina even fighting a single one of them.
The monster's eyes were glowing with the unowned items glow. I took them out in a most disgusting manner.
Fishman Youngling Eye
An eye from a fishman youngling
A fishman. It was a nice way of discovering creatures' official names.
I had no idea what the eyes were used for and wondered if its heart or something would also be useful, but a new game feature was discovered. When I put the sword on the monster, it refused to cut, and a message appeared:
You cannot cut humanoid bodies open!
Only eyes, teeth, tongue, hair, fingernails, ears, fingers and head are allowed to be taken from humanoid creatures (except if in beast form).
It looked like the developers didn't want weirdos doing weird stuff to humanlike creatures.
For me, it meant it would be easier to get items. Opening the creature's mouth, I noticed that neither its teeth nor its tongue were glowing. Nor were its fingers and fingernails. None of the non-transformed fishmen had glowing eyes, either.
After getting back to the place I had used to recover my mana before, I once more meditated until both my HP, MP, and stamina were full, healing as needed because of the food poison status.
When I got back to the lake chamber, I saw ten people. All of them had red capes with black edges over full plate armor. They walked with their helmets open, a crossbow in one hand and a big metal shield in the other. On each of their belts, they carried two swords. Even some fifty meters away I could see their eyes were red. Vampires, all of them. With their equipment, I doubted I had a chance if it came to a fight.
They saw me the same time I saw them. Immediately all of them made a line and pointed their crossbows at me. Not good prospects to live there.
"Stop there! No outsider is allowed at Crystalia or its surrounding chambers!" One of the guards yelled.
I stopped, raised his hands and yelled back. "I'm sorry for trespassing. I'm going to Dakar. Can you help me?"
"You are in Dakar, deathlord. But you are on our lands. Get out or we'll shoot you. You have five seconds."
"C'mon! I just want to find a nice city-"
"Five."
"Seriously man, I'm no threat-"
"Four."
I looked annoyed at them. They closed their helmets.
Shit is getting serious.
"Three."
"Ok, you win. I'm leaving." I turned back. It was unnerving to walk with crossbows pointing at my back, but I figured it would do me no good to see the bolts coming instead of just feeling them.
"Two," the vampire said, and I heard a whoosh sound right next to my ear before a bolt struck the floor ahead of me.
It made me stop for half a second, but I kept walking.
Another arrow came. And another. I started walking faster. More arrows, and one of them grazed my ear.
I ran. The vampire laughs followed.
For half a day I trained in the corridor nearby, waiting for the vampires to go away. When I went back to the chamber, though, I saw they had made camp there – no idea where they had got the tents from.
It was a dead end.
* * *
The way back through the tunnel was even slower than before.
Fueled by fury, I trained like a madman. Even in my 'meditations' – if I could call what I did meditation – all I did was thinking of ways I could have killed the vampires before dying a horrible death. My best score on the end of the first meditation was one kill. After the fourth, I was pretty confident I could have killed one and a half.
I also began to practice walking stealthily again.
As I got back to the sign in front of the prison gates, my strength had risen by two and reached six. Every other attribute remained the same. It seemed they were much easier to raise by fighting ridiculously strong enemies. Even so, I didn't try to go back for the vampires.
That's when I decided to level all my primary attributes to at least ten, starting with strength and constitution. Long boring training was made routine. My thinking was that since I was already level eight, I could take my time to level up slowly without affecting my chances at the Challenge.
Something strange happened while I trained: I heard a phone ring in my head and an exclamation button appeared.
External Call
+1 202 7712-8823-9912 is calling you.
Think "pick up" to answer, "ignore" to ignore, "add" to add this number to your contacts.
Before I could do anything, the message in the window was updated.
Call Dropped
The caller dropped the call.
I recognized the number as grandfather's. Only Richard, my lawyer, was supposed to have my number, but I wasn't surprised that he'd let himself be bullied into revealing it to the old man.
I wasn't called again, for which I was grateful; I wasn't in the mood to talk to him. Truthfully, I was never in the mood when it came to anything about grandfather. I'd never forget the way he had looked at me, nor what he had said to me after the fire.
I added his number to the contacts and went back to my training with a sour mood.
At the beginning of my fifth day in the game, I had risen another strength point and one constitution point. That's when I heard the scream.
I was so focused on my sword swings as I ran that the startled me.
"Run!" It was a male voice.
"No! You run! I'll distract them!" A genderless voice yelled back.
With fifty mana points and sixty stamina left, helping was not a very smart thing to do. I wondered what action I should take until a scream of pain reverberated off the walls.
Shit. Someone is in a lot of pain. I'm in no condition to help. Shit. Shit. After another terrifying scream, I ran toward it. Shit.
Ahead of me, the tunnel turned right. It had become a common occurrence as big rocks had been hit by the excavators. The moment I turned the corner, I saw something weird.
A hairless dog, so emaciated it was possible to see its bones under the skin, was biting a ghost. The strange thing was that the ghost was taking damage and a white substance was dripping from its wounds, disappearing after a moment. The ghost was on the floor, thrashing and trying to get away from the dog to no avail. A little ahead there were six dead dogs and a dead... humanoid thing... too bloodied to be recognized.
A dog? Really? I had to kill elite ghoul guards, and these guys are being defeated by starving dogs?
I threw a darkball at the attacker.
28 darkness damage dealt
The dog whimpered and ran away. I threw a second dark sphere, and it would have missed if not for my Adept Controller attribute allowing me to correct the sphere's path slightly. The dog fell and died amidst painful whimpers.
Poor thing, I thought.
"Tha- Thank you," the ghost said with a child's voice as he stood. He was bald, and his facial features were too smooth to be recognizable. He had white clothes and two small daggers, all of it semi-transparent. His bottom half was absent and when he stood he floated.
"Whoa, what the hell are you?" I asked.<
br />
"Is this your first time seeing a specter?"
"Yeah," I poked him, and my finger hit an obstacle. It was like poking jelly.
"Hey! I'm not an animal. Stop that."
"Talking about animals..." I looked at the corpses. "What were you doing here?" I approached the dead humanoid.
"Well..." Suddenly, he seemed to suspect me. "What are you doing here?"
Just for safety, I created two more dark spheres as I crouched next to the humanoid. It looked and smelled like a long gone corpse, but by all the blood nearby it couldn't have been dead for more than a few minutes. It had no skin whatsoever.
"Is this what ghosts become when they die?" I asked doubtfully.
"No. He is a zombie," he replied curtly.
The zombie had leather clothes and a two handed sword, all of it glowing the way unowned items did. In Valia, all equipment was lost at death; the manuals hinted of a way to prevent that, but I didn't know how.
So, a dead player. His purse was also glowing. I opened it and found thirty silver coins and twelve copper coins.
Except for the money, I didn't see anything I liked in the zombie's equipment; the sword was too big for my tastes.
It was not a whole lot of money, and I thought it was more valuable to make a friend than get some silver at the moment. I took the purse and offered it to the ghost. "He was your friend, right? Do you want me to wait for him here with you?"
He frowned, then took the money. "Thanks." He sighed and his posture changed, as if he had just realized there was no reason to be tense around a guy who had saved him and returned his friend's money. "I don't know if he is coming back. Too many monsters on the way and he will be naked.
"I see." I could protect the body or act as a bodyguard for the zombie, but I wasn't interested in doing so for some strangers. "I'm Jack, by the way."
Unbound Deathlord: Challenge Page 11
